Yellow Pages
Living with a mental illness is a struggle for many families. These loved ones seem to most often strike out against those closest to them, but every so often something pushes them over the real edge of reason and they end up harming others who have played no part in their lives or reality.
So was the case on Tuesday, Sept. 2 in Skagit County.
Six people, including one sworn to protect, were killed and four others injured in a span of just a few hours.
It’s hard to grasp the fact that one person can cause such devastating results, especially for those who lost their son, daughter, mother, father, sister or brother.
There’s sure to be a lot of what ifs asked. What if she had pulled into the driveway a few minutes later? What if they decided to call it an early day on the construction ? What if he’d been passing that stretch of freeway just a few minutes later?
None of those questions matter, because when a life is taken it’s final.
To me, there is right and wrong and it’s pretty black and white. It’s what we teach our children from the time they start trying to stick their fingers into electrical outlets and continue to instill in them when we hear about them speeding through town. It’s not right, so don’t do it.
Simple, we hope.
For those with mentally ill children, I imagine it’s never black and white. Trying to teach someone who doesn’t have that switch in their brain that says, ‘oh, I shouldn’t do that’ is probably much more challenging.
While we can argue that preventative measures such as medications and therapy should have been mandated, those with mental illnesses don’t always take their medication and often can’t be forced to stay in therapy.
There has to be consequences for those who perform such deadly acts as these and justice for those families who have lost someone who is irreplaceable.
Some argue it would have never happened if he hadn’t had a gun, others see that thousands of normal folks own guns and are able to function properly in society. I contend if a person is bent enough to kill someone, they’ll find a weapon. Whether that’s a gun, knife, sword or bomb — they’ll find a way.
After last week’s deadly shootings, Gov. Christine Gregoire stepped in and said she wanted a full investigation — especially when it came to light the suspect had been recently released from the Department of Corrections.
When thousands of dollars are used each year for everything other than helping the mentally ill who are either on the streets or behind bars, we’d expect such an investigation.
Since it’s an election year, perhaps this will spur more conversation on the state level about what can be done to help families who are begging for assistance with their mentally ill children, parents, brothers or sisters so that this type of tragedy can be prevented in more instances.
We need a system that will help these folks, many of whom function quite well in society, live as close to a balanced life as possible. When someone close to them asks for help, the state needs to realize there is a reason for that.
Perhaps the outcry heard from this particular misfortune will help prevent it from happening on this scale in the future.
